How Cal's Gray-Lawson spells relief

Published 4:00 am, Monday, March 24, 2008

Relief that after two consecutive first-round exits, the third-seeded Bears had rolled to a 77-60 win over San Diego on Saturday, and relief because her younger sister Kenya was coming to see her to celebrate Easter.

Kenya, 15, was hospitalized Friday night after experiencing a severe asthma attack at a birthday party. Gray-Lawson received a frantic phone call from Kenya's friend that night at the team hotel while preparing for Saturday's game.

"It was scary for a while," she said. "I could not focus at all (Saturday)."

The two sisters talked on the phone Sunday morning after Kenya's release from the hospital, and the sisters saw one another in person Sunday evening when Gray-Lawson's family came to the team hotel to celebrate the holiday.

"I'm just glad she called," Gray-Lawson said.

Gray-Lawson said Saturday's win was like "lifting a burden. Now we don't have to think about the first-round any more."

History lesson: George Washington coach Joe McKeownand Cal coach Joanne Boyleknow one another well from when Boyle coached Richmond of the Atlantic 10 Conference. She was 0-7 against McKeown while at Richmond.

McKeown said he's watched Cal play late at night on television.

"You know us coaches, we never sleep," McKeown said. "I admire how quickly she's gotten this team to play at this level. I think she's done a real good job adjusting to the players she has at Cal and trying to fit what would be successful with a Devanei Hampton. She didn't have that type of player at Richmond. Nobody did."

UTEP success story: The Miners, who had not won more than 18 games in a season before this one, reeled off a 23-game winning streak that ended just a couple of weeks ago in the Conference USA title game.

"We didn't talk about that, other people did," UTEP coach Keitha Adamssaid. "We just go out and prepare for whoever we are playing next."

Briefly: Saturday's attendance at Maples Pavilion was 4,075 for the first session, which included Cal's game. The evening session, with Stanford playing, drew 5,457. In the Cardinal's first-round game at Maples last season, 4,396 fans were on hand.